Fred LaFemina, Fire Operations

Fire Operations
by Fred LaFemina

Chief Fred LaFemina is a 21 year veteran of the FDNY. He is presently assigned to the FDNY’s Rescue Operations Battalion No. 1 as the battalion commander. He has been with special operations for more than 16 years. He was a firefighter in E-318, L-166 and Sq-1 in Brooklyn, a lieutenant in E-248 in Brooklyn and Rescue Company 4 in Queens, the captain of Sq-270 in Queens and prior to his promotion to chief, the captain of Rescue Company 1 in Manhattan. He is also the task force leader on NY-TF1’s Urban Search & Rescue Team and has deployed to a number of disasters. He is also a member of the Rescue Working Group nationally for the USAR Program and a backup member of the Incident Support Team. From 1996 to 1997 he was the director of the FDNY’s Technical Rescue School. He has written various articles on fire operations and technical rescue, and lectures throughout the country on many of these topics.